Fishing Buddies

One of Bill's favorite past times during our years at Fred's News, was fishing and crabbing.  Buzzy, Happy, Al P., Al G., Rich O, Dave S., and Ernie from the telephone company all loved to fish.  What did they all have in common besides their love of fishing, they were regular customers at Fred's News.  This group of totally different personalities, from all walks of life, just plain and simply put, loved to fish, swap whopping big fish tales and go on fishing trips.  Buzzy travelled the most, and brought back great stories of his excursions, particularly Salmon fishing on Lake Ontario. 

Bill and buddies took two trips north to Lake Ontario.  Buzzy gave them all the details, where to stay, who had the best charter boat and who was the best captain.   Probably should of paid a little more attention to Buzzy, but what the hell, they caught fish!  The first place they stayed (Bill's description):  The place was like a big old, weathered red barn under construction.  The view was great, looking out the back window, the water led to a bay directly into Lake Ontario.  The view inside the room was beyond description.  Mr. Potato Head said,  "the room charge was ten dollars a night and that was nine bucks too much!"  The bathroom for all the rooms, was down the hall, the only one in this big old barn.  So, you shared this common area with everyone that was staying  there.  Nice! OMG...no wonder they called it a fishing camp...just cutting a hole in the floor would of been better than what was offered.  The guys agreed, it was only a place to sleep.  The next morning Bill was in a makeshift type shower, hearing someone talk, he turned around, only to realize, there was a guy sitting on the commode right next to the shower stall.  Bill could see over the top of the shower and there was someone relieving himself.  That's a "DOUBLE NICE!!!

Their first day out on the charter boat, the Lake was very rough and choppy.  The only one seemed bothered by this was Wimpy Bill.  I tried to tell him, take some of those seasick patches, but "No way, I can handle it!"  After turning, green, yellow and woofing his cookies, Bill headed down the hatch.  Just as he thought he felt better, Happy comes down the stairs into the galley, pulls out a foot long sandwich, full of salami, cheese, lettuce, tomato and oozing oil, promptly starts chowing down, "hey Billy, want a bite?"    So much for an afternoon of fun fishing.  Day two, Mr. Bill now has his "sea legs", and yes, they all caught fish.  The Lake was beautiful, calm and fish were hungry.  They filled their cooler with salmon, packing them carefully in ice, taking great pains so their fish would not spoil.  I really don't think the cooler was ready for one hundred plus pounds of fish.  As they attempted to lift the cooler, SNAP!  Just the handles were lifted, the weight too much, off they snapped.  Off to the local store for two new coolers.  Thank God the room was only ten bucks!

Every night the Egg-Nazi would call home to report the day's adventure.  He knew  the locals wanted to hear stories of the mighty fishermen and their haul.  As the van pulled into the driveway of Fred's News, we all went out on the back dock to greet the "men returned from the sea (lake)".  As they opened the door of the van, it was not only the smell of salmon that pierced the air....four guys in seedy hotel, with one shower for everyone, for a total of four days, was not a cozy, homey fragrance!  Get out the Yankee Candles and burn the van!!!